The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (29 page)

“
Weapons?
”
Eulenburg asked quietly.

“
They seem to be heading for geostationary orbit, sir. That puts them well clear of going over the top of us or any of the other shelters. However that doesn
’
t preclude the possibility of weapon platforms.
”

“
And you didn
’
t spot these things coming?
”
Reynolds asked accusingly.

“
We did detect them Madam,
”
Gillum replied with studied patience.
“
We saw a couple of Nameless ships approach the planet to the two light second mark and release them. But it wasn
’
t until the first one got close enough for a visual inspection that we realised that they were different from the satellites the Nameless have been launching for weeks.
”

“
Could we shoot them down or blow them up with missile defence?
”
she asked.

“
I have a grand total of fourteen missiles left in the silos Governor and another thirty in the stores. These could be no more than decoys.
”

“
To be honest sir, I don
’
t think they are. You see they haven
’
t come alone.
”
Gillum pressed a button and the image of the cylinder was replaced by one of another design of satellite.

“
These ones are about ten metres high by six wide. There are two of them for each of the cylinders. The pair that has already gone into orbit is positioned twenty kilometres on either side of the cylinder.
”

“
Defences,
”
Eulenburg said with a sigh.

“
It certainly looks that way, sir,
”
Gillum said.
“
Although it could still be a decoy, something to lure us out. The second one will achieve orbit in the next half hour, the remaining five will arrive at three-hour intervals.
”

Eulenburg stared at the screen for several minutes before replying.

“
Contact the other shelters and inform them we are launching a fighter strike,
”
he said eventually as he walked back to Four C
’
s central chamber.
“
We have to know,
”
he commented to Reynolds as he passed her.

Twenty minutes later the four of them were watching the main display. The green blips represented the twelve Raven space fighters from one of the two squadrons stationed at Douglas, climbing out of the planet
’
s gravity well. On the command platform, Eulenburg had his hands clenched behind his back and was having to force himself not to do something as unbecoming as fidget.

The atmosphere in Four C was tense. After the brief violence of the thirtieth, followed by the long calm, Eulenburg guessed that a lot of people had hoped that the Nameless had decided they weren
’
t worth the bother and would leave them to wither on the vine. Truth be told, he had been among them.

“
We have laser hook-up to the other shelters, sir,
”
Gillum said quietly in his ear.
“
We
’
ve had handshake from Anshan and Endeavour
’
s mainframes. We
’
re ready to run analysis on whatever we get.
”

“
Thank you Captain. Is the Governor
…”

“
In Number One Observation Lounge, sir,
”
Gillum replied nodding towards one of the viewing sections on the second level of the Four C.
“
She
’
s not entirely happy about being up there. I think she thought she
’
d be down here.
”

Eulenburg merely nodded.

“
Ground Control, this is Flight Leader Bussell,
”
intoned the main speaker.

“
Flight Leader, this is Ground Control. We
’
re receiving you,
”
Eulenburg replied without waiting for the nod from the communications officer.

“
We
’
ve exited atmosphere and are now orbiting towards the target. I intend to fire as soon as the target crests the horizon. See where stand off range firing takes us. Estimate five minutes to firing.
”

“
Understood, Flight Leader.
”

It was a long five minutes watching the green blips approach the blue. So far there had been no sign of activity from the closest escort satellite.

“
This is Flight Leader. Target acquisition in ten seconds. Prepare for targeting data.
”
The radio signal wasn
’
t intended for the ground and Eulenburg had no wish to interrupt or distract those who were doing the real fighting.

“
Have lock on
…
fire!
”

On the main display a dozen new contacts separated from the fighters and accelerated toward the target. On the visual display the escort satellite also burst into life. Panels blew away revealing the nose cones of banks of missiles which immediately launched en masse.

“
Bloody hellfire,
”
Gillum muttered as the two lots of missiles converged. The twelve human missiles disappeared.
“
We were right about them being escorts.
”

“
Tactical?
”
Eulenburg asked.

“
Nothing got within a hundred K of the target, sir,
”
the officer at the analysis section reported.
“
We estimate one of the escorts blew off an eighth of its payload.
”

“
The fighters still have one more cap ship missile each. Although if the first salvo was ineffective there is no reason to think the second will be any more use,
”
Gillum said.
“
We could launch the other squadron, make a mass attack.
”

Eulenburg ran his hand through his hair as he stared at the display.

“
Sir?
”

“
I heard you Captain.
”

“
What do you want to do sir?
”

“
Give me a moment.
”

“
Sir, the second object is entering orbit on the opposite side of the planet.
”

“
Ground Control, this is Flight Leader. We can make another pass. Go close this time. We
’
ll launch anti-fighter missiles at the escorts as we go in, smother them in targets and launch the cap ship missiles at close range.
”

“
That will put them in range of the escorts, sir. We
’
ll lose fighters too.
”

Eulenburg continued to stare at the display. Could they afford to lose fighters this early in the game without knowing what they were attempting to take out? It could be a feint or a main move. Could the fighters be replaced? Not from their own resources, so only if the fleet brought them in from Earth. Was that likely to happen any time soon? Lots of questions, very few answers.

Then things got more complicated.

“
Command, this is Coms. The first object is starting to transmit on FTL frequencies. It
’
s transmitting across three of the bands.
”

“
What?
”
Gillum muttered as he dashed across to the Communications Centre. He shoved the officer out of his way and peered at the display before turning back to Eulenburg.

“
Admiral, it
’
s not transmitting, it
’
s jamming! It
’
s already blanketed the FTL
’
s A, B and C bands and a third of the useable radio frequencies!
”
he shouted.

“
Hell,
”
Eulenburg murmured.
“
Erm
…
Coms. Send an FTL signal to Earth: Enemy deploying FTL jammers in orbit.
”

“
The second object is coming online. We
’
re losing the last three bands,
”
the coms officer reported.

No chance they could have got the message out. The FTL transmitter needed ten minutes to spin up.

“
Can we punch through the interference?
”
Eulenburg asked.

The communications officer checked a display before turning back to him and giving a terse shake of the head.

Gillum hurried back up to the command platform.

“
Sir, we have to inform Earth.
”
When Eulenburg hesitated Gillum continued:
“
sir, they are blanketing all six FTL bands with only two jammers. There are five more en route to us. If we don
’
t get the message out within the next couple of hours, we aren
’
t going to get it out at all.
”

Eulenburg nodded.

“
Flight Leader, this is ground control. Make a second pass on the target. Flight Leader we have to destroy that target.
”

“
Understood, Ground Control.
”

“
Captain Gillum, arm the second squadron for a strike. Contact the military heads at Anshan and Endeavour. Ask them for their co-operation on a joint strike should the first fail.
”

The second strike against the jammer proved as ineffective as the first and cost them two fighters. Furthermore Squadron Commander Bussell
’
s fighter broke up as it made re-entry, its heat shield apparently damaged. The third strike was delayed for three-quarters of an hour while the Americans and Chinese armed their own space fighters. The joint strike succeeded where the first two had failed but cost another two fighters. The pay-off was a fifty-minute window to transmit what they had learned back to Earth, then the next jammer got close enough to Landfall to take effect and once again the planet was cut off.

The conference room of Four C was once again abuzz with people. This time however nearly a third of the participants were physically present, with the balance represented by holograms of those individuals currently in the other two shelters. With this second move by the Nameless, there was now no doubt that Landfall would not be left alone. In truth with the shelters so widely separated, their ability to provide mutual support was limited to air strikes. But from a psychological angle they probably all felt the need to reach out to someone beyond their immediate locale, now that they were cut off from the humanity
’
s birthplace.

  Eulenburg rapped the table.

“
Ladies and gentlemen, can we get started?
”
When no one dissented he continued:
“
I have requested that Generals Xiaochuan and Arlidge, military heads of Anshan and Endeavour join us.
”
The two men nodded to the table at large. Xiaochuan was a large man, long since run to fat with sleepy looking eyes. Taken at face value he was a has-been, if not a never-had-been. Eulenburg had known him long enough to know that face value was wrong. Anshan was in good, if slightly podgy hands.

“
As you are all no doubt aware, we now have six FTL and radio jammers in geostationary orbit above the planet. We are now cut off from Earth and we are going to suffer communication problems on the planet.
”

The French Representative, Governor Gambon, spoke up.

“
Do we have plans in place to destroy these?
”

“
We have plans alright,
”
replied General Arlidge,
“
just not necessarily to smoke those things.
”

“
General, this has to be the highest priority,
”
the American Representative said across the table to his senior military officer.

“
Respectfully sir, no it isn
’
t,
”
Arlidge replied with a decisive shake of his head.